


Tis the Season

by peregrinning



Category: Cormoran Strike Series - Robert Galbraith
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-16
Updated: 2016-12-16
Packaged: 2018-09-08 21:37:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,336
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8863039
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/peregrinning/pseuds/peregrinning
Summary: When Cormoran finds out that Robin doesn't want to go home for Christmas after separating from Matthew, he invites her to a Christmas dinner at his sister's house. 
Short piece about friendship, definitions of happiness, and Cormoran's growing feelings for his partner.





	

It was the end of the year and so they were both in the office, finishing up some paper work from various cases, sorting out invoices, bills and expense claims. Cormoran was just trying to remember how much of a particular lunch bill had been his sandwich and how much his beer when he realised that Robin, who was fixing a pot of tea, hadn’t requested any holiday leave. 

“Robin, hadn’t you better let me know what days you want off if you’re going home over Christmas?” he asked her. 

As her back was to him while she poured water from the kettle into the teapot he couldn’t see her face but noticed a distinct stiffness in her shoulders when she replied. 

“Actually, I wasn’t planning on going to Yorkshire this year”. 

“You aren’t?” he asked, surprised. “We aren’t too busy right now, you can certainly go as long as I know which days”. 

She continued to make tea in a rather determined fashion, even going so far as to refill the sugar pot from the bag in the cupboard, and he wondered if she was deliberately avoiding looking at him. 

“No, I don’t want to go…it’s the first Christmas since Matthew and I separated and I know he’s going to be there…”

“I know Masham’s small, Robin, but surely it’s not so tiny that you can’t avoid him? Don’t you want to see your family?”

She sighed, and he felt very sorry for her when she said, “No, I don’t want to see them either…they’re either pitying or disapproving and I just don’t want to deal with them at the moment, maybe later when it’s not Christmas. Christmas has so many expectations, you know? I told them we were in the middle of a case and I couldn’t come this year”. 

He wondered how many times he’d used “cases” to get out of familial obligations; Robin was clearly picking up some bad habits. 

“Thanks a lot for making me your scapegoat, Robin,” he teased, “as if they don’t disapprove of your job and your boss enough already”. 

She finally turned to give me a rueful smile. “Sorry, Corm. That’s just the way the Christmas cookie crumbled”. 

“Have you got any plans this year, then?” he asked her. He couldn’t help but notice that she looked a little sad when she said that she didn’t. 

It had to be his soft (very soft) spot for her that then had him inviting her to go with him to a pre-Christmas dinner party on the 23rd at his sister’s house. “It’s with a couple of other friends of theirs, I was given the choice of this and joining in a family lunch on Christmas Day…thought this was the lesser of two evils”. 

Robin laughed “Honestly Corm, you are such a grinch when it comes to your sister. That sounds nice, but isn’t it a little late to be inviting me?”. 

“I’m sure it’ll be no problem. I’ll just give her a call to tell her you’re coming”. 

“To ask if I can come, you mean," said Robin. He nodded with a shrug, knowing full well that Lucy would happily agree. He would just have to impress upon Lucy that this did _not_ mean that he and Robin were together now. Lucy tended to get a bit over-excited. 

 

 

It was snowing on the 23rd as they all ate dinner together. Fortunately, the food was excellent, and Lucy and Greg’s friends weren’t too bad, if a little boring. It was a lot more fun, he had to admit, with Robin there as well, especially when she caught his eye and gave him a small ironic smile when something particularly inane was said. He couldn’t help but notice she looked exceptionally pretty tonight, in a bluey-green knit dress and sparkly earrings. By the time Lucy was making some tea and coffee after their meal, he was definitely in need of a smoke. 

“Just going outside for a smoke, please excuse me," he said, standing up with some difficultly owing to the large meal he’d just had. 

“Please excuse me as well," said Robin to his surprise. They made their way out into the dark outside the house, Robin choosing a seat on the garden wall upwind of him to avoid the smoke, as was her wont. 

“You don’t smoke," he told her as she wrapped her scarf more tightly around her chin. 

“They don’t know that, best way to have a little quiet without offending anyone," she replied with a smile. 

“Thanks for coming, Robin, they’re much more bearable with you here," he said. 

“You old grump, Cormoran!” she teased. “I’ve had a good time, so thank you for inviting me. They’re nice people. And Lucy is sweet”. 

“I can’t decide which one outweighs the other for Luce, that you came along, and she really likes you, or that you deprived her of a chance to try and set me up with someone else”. 

Robin laughed, and he felt his chest grow a bit tight at the sparkle in her eyes. There was snow collecting on her hat, and a piece of her bright hair was escaping, brushing one sweetly flushed cheek. He took another drag of his cigarette, clamping down the urge to wind that hair around his finger and tuck it back under her hat. 

“She means well, Cormoran. She just wants you to be happy”. 

“I know," he said gruffly. “It’s just that she has such a narrow definition of happiness. One that’s just not for me”. 

Robin nodded at this. “I know all about that, believe me”. For a moment, Matthew’s face seemed to hang between them like a mirage. He waved his arm at it, ostensibly to blow some lingering smoke away. 

“Look Corm, forgive me for getting a bit sentimental here, but well, tis the season," said Robin in an embarrassed sort of way. “We might not have spouses and kids and houses, but we both love our jobs, and we both have a really good friend in each other. Not everyone has that.”

He laughed and she crinkled her nose at him. “Thanks, Robin. And Merry Christmas”. 

She smiled back at him and he stubbed out the end of his cigarette and stood up to go back inside. 

“What about Christmas Day," he asked her, “will you be alright?”. 

“Yes, of course," she said, pausing on the steps up to Lucy’s door. “Though I was thinking, maybe we could work in the morning and then go out for a pub lunch, if you aren’t doing anything? After all we haven’t ever done a work Christmas Party”. 

“Yes, that sounds good”. 

 

As she went inside, Cormoran took his time taking his coat off again, hoping that he wasn’t making a dangerous mistake in agreeing to the Christmas lunch with Robin. There could be no chance of a weak moment between two friends who might be feeling a bit lonely on Christmas Day…he would have to be very careful. Spending time with Robin was, he reflected, rather like a very good single-malt whiskey. It slipped down smooth as silk and warmed you up inside, but if you weren’t careful, it’d make you just as drunk and just as much of a fool as anything else. 

Still, it seemed too cruel for her to be by herself on Christmas, and it would be a nice way to celebrate the end of a very professionally successful year. Outside, the snow continued to drift down into soft white peaks, and inside he could hear Robin chatting happily to his sister. Yes, he would have to be very careful at their Christmas lunch…but perhaps he would just have to see what the New Year would bring, now that he and Robin were both free from unhappy relationships…Maybe, he thought, maybe your definition of happiness could be about a person, instead of items on a checklist. _Come what may, Robin_ , he thought. _Come what may_. 

 


End file.
